1/ It’s been a big week in #covid19 news: Pfzier-BioNTech’s SARS-CoV-2 vaccine got the official FDA EUA green light and the first UK patients got vaccinated. Let’s break down what techniques are currently being employed for SARS-COV-2 vaccine development:

2/ Traditional vaccine development usually leverages the whole virus to induce an immunogenic response. However, many SARS-CoV-2 vaccine developers are using a spike protein-specific approach.

3/ Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines are both examples of mRNA vaccines, a novel technology that holds a lot of promise, but is also relatively untested. Modified spike protein mRNA is put inside a lipid nanoparticle and introduced intramuscularly into patients.

4/ The body’s translation machinery recognizes the mRNA and translates it into SARS-CoV-2 spike protein which is either exocytosed or membrane-anchored to induce immunogenicity

5/ The fact that this technique works is *really* cool and mindblowing. Synthesizing RNA is much easier than culturing live virus - if this technique proves to be effective and safe at scale, it will dramatically change the landscape of vaccine and drug development.

6/ Now that the FDA has approved Pfizer’s vaccine, the next milestone is Moderna’s EUA request, which might come as early as next week. We are all holding our breaths to see how the FDA responds– Pfizer’s approval has set a high bar, but also a historic precedent.

7/ I can’t emphasize enough: SARS-CoV-2 testing will still be crucial and necessary to control the spread while we wait for the vaccine to be widely available and distributed. Now that the EUA has been granted, the hard work begins to achieve herd immunity by vaccination.

8/ Proactive testing, paired with rigorous contact tracing and isolation, is an effective way to control spread within a population (such as a workplace or a university). This kind of testing will still be necessary as vaccines roll out.:

9/ tl;dr: Proactive testing means *everyone* in a population is being tested regularly (1-2x a week), so that if an individual is infected, you can isolate them from the population immediately in order to mitigate the risk of further spread.

10/ You can read more on how we modeled the impact of proactive testing with @CT_Bergstrom here: https://www.color.com/modeling-sars-cov-2-outbreaks-in-workplaces-universities-and-other-congregate-settings

11/ It’s crucial that we continue to wear our masks, wash our hands, maintain social distancing and implement testing strategies that help control outbreaks – even as we get more good vaccine news.